Regé-Jean Page, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Willmott are working on a Muhammed Ali television series for Peacock, according to Variety. Excellence: 8 Fights, the eight-part scripted drama, will chronicle the life of the boxing legend and is based on Jonathan Eig’s exemplary biography Ali: A Life.
Page, Freeman, and Willmott are all linked to the upcoming project as executive producers, along with Emily Brown and Lori McCreary for Revelations Entertainment. In addition, Eig will serve as the project’s producer in tandem with CBS Studios and UCP.
The show’s synopsis details the drama as a series dedicated to covering Ali’s “defining moments.”
“[Excellence: 8 Fights will] chronicle eight distinct and defining moments in the iconic life of Muhammad Ali. Each episode will be framed by one fight from Ali’s life, but the essence of the episode, what it’s really about, is the internal fight – the drama outside the ring – where we will explore the struggle going on in the heart and mind of one of the most consequential and controversial figures of the 20th century.”
American Heavyweight boxer, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali, 1942 – 2016), making a fist as he lies on his hotel bed, London, 27th May 1963. Clay is in London for a match against Henry Cooper on 18th June.
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In other news regarding the legendary boxer, the civil rights pioneer’s life story will be adapted into a musical called ALI, Deadline reports.
Lonnie Ali, the boxer’s widow, gave the show’s composer, Teddy Abrams, permission to adapt Ali’s life into a musical production. Deputy artistic director of London’s National Theatre Clint Dyer and producer Richard Willis are also set to work on the theater project.
The trio, consisting of two white men and one Black man, is planning to bring in more Black voices to amplify the authentic African-American voice of Ali’s story.
